Simhasanadvatrimshika 7.1

7.1

gagananagarakalpaṃ saṃgamaṃ vallabhānāṃ,
jaladapaṭalatulyaṃ yauvanaṃ vā dhanaṃ vā;
svajanasutaśarīrādīni vidyuccalāni,
kṣaṇikam iti samastaṃ viddhi saṃsāravṛttam. || 1 ||

1. Know that union with dear ones is like the mirage of a city in the sky; that youth and wealth both are even as a mass of clouds; that dependants, sons, the body, and all such things are as unstable as lightning; and that all the objects of this round of existence endure but for a moment. And so: 2. A refuge that is no real refuge — she is the root of man’s bondage, — a wife, so quickly won, the door to troops of miseries. Consider ye! sons are foes! all that relinquish ye! cleave ye to righteousness unspotted, ye who desire a refuge. Therefore righteousness is the only refuge of creatures that are subject to the round of existence. And thus it is said: 3. Righteousness preserves if preserved, but if destroyed [transgrest] it most assuredly destroys people. Therefore it should never be transgrest; for it is always the sole refuge of those bound up in the chain of existences. Righteousness permits a man to attain, in this world, even that station on which ascetics fix their minds. There is no other friend than righteousness, and moreover no one is truly happy or learned except the righteous man. 4. Righteousness can bring about a joy that is the cream of (the delights of) the serpent-princes’ city (in the underworld); Righteousness is the cause of great joy to those who strive thereafter, when they have attained the world of men; it is in Righteousness that the flavor of the unceasing happiness of the heavenly city has its origin; does not Righteousness make the fitting opportunity for union with one’s mistress, Salvation? Therefore a wise man must give away the store of wealth he has acquired to worthy persons, so as to lay up a store of righteousness. Given to them wealth becomes multiplied. And thus it is said: 5. When wealth is bestowed upon worthy persons, it derives increast value from its recipient; just as a drop of cloud-water in a sea-shell turns into a pearl. And so: 6. As the tiny seed of the banyan tree, falling upon good and fruitful ground, spreads abroad mightily, just so a gift given to a worthy person.” Reflecting repeatedly on these truths, he summoned the scripture-learned brahmans and heard from them the account of all the gift-presentations described in the chapter on gifts composed by Hemādri, namely: the cow-present, land-present, girl-present, knowledge-present, food-present, water-present, and the rest. And when he had made all these presents to worthy persons, his heart being thereby purified, he again reflected: “All these rites of almsgiving and so forth which I have instituted will become fruitful only when I have gone to Dvāravatī and seen Kṛṣṇa.” So reflecting he set out for Dvāravatī. Coming to the seashore he summoned a ship-master, paid him a great price, and took on board various people, including monks, ascetics, strangers, and poor people; and holding religious conversations with them in friendly intercourse, he set forth. In mid-ocean he saw a small hill, and upon that hill there was a great shrine. So going to the shrine he worshipt the goddess, the Queen of the Earth, with the sixteen-fold oblations of perfumes, flowers, and so on, and did homage to her. And when he cast his eyes to the left of her (statue) he beheld a pair, a man and a woman, whose heads were cut off. And on the wall before them he saw an inscription: “Whenever some benefactor of others, endowed with great heroism, shall worship the Queen of the Earth with blood from his own neck, then this pair, the man and the woman, shall come to life.” When the astonisht Dhanada had read this inscription he embarkt again on his ship and came to Dvāravatī. And when he had lookt upon Kṛṣṇa he made obeisance and praised him, thus: